Claim: The Islamabad International Airport is selling unclaimed luggage for PKR 560 per item and “all purchases come with a 14-day return option”.
Fact: The social media posts are a scam. Such offers are “fake news” and “completely false and misleading”, the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) confirmed, adding that it has “not authorised any such activity”. Moreover, similar scams have circulated about other international airports in the past.
On 20 June 2025, Soch Fact Check received for verification the link to a post (archive) by Facebook page ‘Airport Announcements/ISB’, which states:
“Islamabad International Airport announces a unique opportunity: You can now claim unclaimed luggage for just ₨560 per item!”
The term “ISB” in the Facebook page’s name refers to the three-letter International Air Transport Association (IATA) code for the Islamabad airport, which also has a four-letter International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) code, “OPIS.”
The post, which includes three images purportedly from the Islamabad Airport, also provides links — “is.gd/Luggage” and “is.gd/Luggage1” — for people to register. It also creates a sense of urgency, as it states, “Quantities are limited. Offer valid while stock lasts.”
Soch Fact Check also came across another similar post (archive), which provides a different link — “islamabad-airport.proven-offer.com/pk” — to “a short survey [to] get your suitcase” from the airport’s unclaimed baggage.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check checked the websites and social media pages of the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA), the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA), and the Islamabad International Airport but did not find any such offer.
We then reached out to the PAA for a comment.
Saifullah Khan, the additional director for PAA’s Press Relations Department, told Soch Fact Check, “This is fake news. We have provided a clarification.” He also provided us with a link to a warning issued on 20 April 2025.
“This continues resurfacing from time to time,” Khan added.
In its past alert, the PAA wrote, “It has come to our attention that a post is circulating online claiming that lost luggage is being sold at Islamabad International Airport. This information is completely false and misleading. The Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) has not authorised any such activity. Please avoid sharing or trusting such fake news. For accurate and verified updates, follow our official channels.”
After Soch Fact Check contacted the PAA, the authority reshared its warning on Facebook.
Moreover, the PAA’s and the PCAA’s official Facebook pages can be accessed here and here, respectively.
Scam Facebook pages?
The Facebook pages that shared the posts in question are suspicious as well.
According to the first one’s transparency tab (archive), it was created on 8 May 2025 with the name ‘Optimizm’ but changed it to ‘Airport Announcements/ISB’ on 20 June 2025. It has 10 followers and two posts so far.
According to the second one’s transparency tab (archive), it was created on 20 January 2025 with the name ‘Flughafen-Ankündigungen/FRA’ — which corresponds to Germany’s Frankfurt Airport (FRA/EDDF) — but changed it to ‘Airport announcements/ISB’ on 16 June 2025. It has 181 followers and four posts to date.
We also observed that the posts have attracted comments from users that do not appear to be Pakistani, let alone based in Pakistan.
URL authentication
We also checked the links provided for authenticity.
We ran both the short URLs “is.gd/Luggage” and “is.gd/Luggage1” using http and its secure version, https, on urlscan.io, which identified the landing page as “https://freesiabroking.shop/2022/10/stanley-adventure-quencher-original-vs.html”; however, it does not work anymore. The results are available here, here, here, and here.
Fraud Detector could not run an analysis as the link does not work anymore.
Pulsedive, a threat intelligence platform, flagged both URLs with http and https — it as “high risk” due to “suspicious TLD,” or Top-Level Domain, which can be used to facilitate malicious activities, such as data exfiltration, phishing, command-and-control (C2) operations, and malware distribution, according to GoSecure, a professional security and threat detection service.
Scam Detector gave a score of 58.9 to the URL shortening service, indicating medium risk. User reviews on Trustpilot and MyWOT indicate that scammers frequently use the is.gd URL shortener to target vulnerable people.
The URL shortening service states in its spam policy, “Occasionally is.gd shortened links will be used in spam or to point to malicious content. We take this abuse of our service very seriously and do everything we can to prevent it.
“We hate spam usage of our service and is.gd has no relationship with spammers. We never send any spam email and only ever email people who have emailed us first (e.g. to respond to questions we get about the site),” it adds.
The link from the second Facebook post — “islamabad-airport.proven-offer.com/pk” — also seems to be taken down now, according to urlscan.io results, available here and here.
Fraud Detector returned a negative result and explained: “The test results of islamabad-airport.proven-offer.com/pk are negative. Our advice is not to place any orders here. The website you provided may be a fraudulent website or has been reported negatively by others.”
Pulsedive said there appeared to be an “unknown risk” and Scam Detector gave “proven-offer.com” a score of 7.6, which indicates that it is “suspicious” and “untrustworthy.”
Origins of pictures in viral posts
As for the visuals included in the two posts, we found all of them to be old, unrelated, and from different locations around the world.
The first post has three pictures, the origins of which are below:
- The first picture is from the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX/KLAX) in the US. It was taken by Mario Tama on 29 June 2023 and is available on Getty Images here. The Islamabad airport’s logo and name has been doctored onto a retractable belt barrier but the word “United” in the background indicates that it is the United Airlines’ baggage claim area.
- The second picture is from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA/KDCA) in the US and was taken by Aaron Schwartz on 23 July 2024. It is available on Getty Images here. The Islamabad airport’s logo and name has been doctored onto a retractable belt barrier in this as well.
- The third picture is from the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX/KLAX) in the US and was also taken by Mario Tama on 29 June 2023. It is available on Getty Images here. It, too, has the text “Islamabad International Airport” doctored onto a retractable belt barrier and a signboard.
- The post also includes three pictures in the comments. This image appeared online as early as 20 January 2025 in a post on Threads. The second one appeared on Pinterest here on 14 November 2024, but it is a screenshot of an Instagram story dated 16 January 2023. A third visual could not be traced successfully.
The second post also has three pictures, the origins of which are below:
- The first and second pictures appeared in a Reddit post on 27 December 2022 and are linked to the Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ/CYYZ) in Canada. Interestingly, while the name “Islamabad International Airport” and the PCAA’s logo have been doctored onto the retractable belt barrier in the front of the first photograph, the logos of Canadian air companies Swoop, Air Transat, and Flair Airlines are visible in the background of both images. The second visual also has a trolley displaying the name and logo of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC).
- The third picture was traced to an article in The Washington Post, published on 28 December 2022 and credited to The Associated Press, which identified the location as St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL/KSTL) in the US. The photographer is Jeff Roberson.
- This post also has at least three pictures in the comments. This image was posted on Shutterstock on 2 October 2019 with the caption, “Men’s things packed in a (sic) open suitcase. Top view. Business trip. Luggage and people concept. The traveler preparing (sic) for journey.” The second one appears on a blog called “Rome Actually,” where, according to the photo’s independent link, it was uploaded sometime in 2014. The third visual can be found as early as 5 August 2020 on the Facebook page ‘АВА-центр “Шаг вперёд”’.
Soch Fact Check found out that the scam is neither new nor restricted to Pakistan. It has also circulated in connection to the following airports:
- Romania’s Bucharest Henri Coanda International Airport (OTP/LROP) on 21 January 2025
- Argentina’s Buenos Aires Ministro Pistarini International Airport (EZE/SAEZ) on 7 February 2025
- Cayman Islands’ George Town Owen Roberts International Airport (GCM/MWCR) on 25 February 2025
- Gibraltar’s Gibraltar International Airport (GIB/LXGB) on 26 February 2025
- Maldives’ Male Velana International Airport (MLE/VRMM) on 4 March 2025
- Cambodia’s Phnom Penh International Airport (PNH/VDPP) on 17 March 2025
- Costa Rica’s San Jose Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO/MROC) on 25 March 2025
- Kyrgyzstan’s Bishkek Manas International Airport (FRU/UCFM) on 5 June 2025
- French Polynesia’s Tahiti-Faa’a International Airport (PPT/NTAA) on 13 June 2025
- Fiji’s Nadi International Airport (NAN/NFFN) on 15 June 2025
Two of the scams — in Cambodia and Fiji — were investigated and debunked by Fact Crescendo and Australian Associated Press (AAP), both accredited by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), of which Soch Fact Check is also a signatory.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the scam posts here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The social media posts are a scam. A PAA spokesperson confirmed to Soch Fact Check that the offer was “fake news”. The authority has said in the past that it did not authorise “any such activity” and advised people to “avoid sharing or trusting such fake news”. Interestingly, similar scams have circulated about other international airports in the past.
Background image in cover photo: SARDAR KAMRAN KHAN
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